Once upon a time, a spare from England constituted making a signature arrival for an MLS franchise.

Just a few rounds of expansion ago, a name you might be familiar with from his exploits kicking it around on a Saturday morning somewhere in the British countryside was all that was required to make a splash in a club’s maiden voyage in MLS.

From the likes of Danny Dichio to Ronnie O’Brien to the former gold standard Freddie Ljungberg, it was once imperative for a new MLS club hoping to carve out a sphere of relevance via a star-studded press conference, even if the club’s reach occasionally exceeded its tactical or financial grasp.

In the space of a tumultuous half-decade or so of skyrocketing growth for the league, the requirement to announce a club’s arrival hasn’t lessened. But the degree to which clubs are doing so has risen to a degree that the league’s early shapers could once only dream of.

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Take the league’s biggest headlines of the last week, made by teams still eight months away from kicking a ball for the first time in MLS. In the space of just a few hours, the long-rumored signing of Brazilian great Kaka by Orlando City was made official. New York City FC, a club funded by the bottomless pit of Abu Dhabi oil wealth that has transformed Manchester City into two-time champions of England, meanwhile came a step closer to the capture of England and Chelsea legend Frank Lampard.

Combined with NYCFC’s confirmed acquisition of David Villa in early June, it’s no stretch to say that those clubs have landed three of the top five or 10 most decorated players in MLS history.

Consider the history: Kaka was the 2007 FIFA World Player of the Year with AC Milan before being sold to Real Madrid for 65 million euros, then the most expensive transfer in history. He would be the third FIFA World Player of the Year to lace them up in MLS, joining 1991 winner Lothar Matthaus and 1994 Ballon D’Or winner Hristo Stoichov (those two awards would later be combined).

Lampard, who made over 400 league appearances for Chelsea and is the club’s all-time leading goalscorer to go with 106 caps for the English national team, joins Stoichov, Thierry Henry and David Beckham as World POY runners-up to play in MLS.

Combined with Villa, Spain’s all-time leading scorer fresh off a World Cup appearance for La Roja, the accolades accumulated by this triumvirate are unparalleled. Between them, they’ve won eight league titles across the English Premier League, Spain’s La Liga and Italy’s Serie A, three UEFA Champions League crowns and two World Cups. Per ESPN’s stats guru Paul Carr, that makes Kaka and Villa the eighth and ninth world champions to enter MLS.

Perhaps most important is that this isn’t just a victory lap for aging veterans. Lampard might be near the end of his run, having just turned 36. But he had enough in the tank this season, playing under his 11th Chelsea manager, to fight his way into the side for 26 league appearances and earn a place on England’s ill-fated World Cup side. The seemingly evergreen Lampard has defied rumors of his imminent demise for the last three or four years.

Kaka and Villa, somewhat remarkably, are just 32 (Villa turns 33 in December). After some long-term injury issues, both rallied to have vastly improved seasons last term.

Villa scored 13 league goals for a shocking Atletico Madrid side that won La Liga and made the Champions League final, earning Villa a spot in Brazil before he called time on his international career with a staggering 59 goals in 97 appearances. (That’s not to mention that fact that had Vicente Del Bosque opted for Villa more often in Brazil — instead of the confused wanderings of fans’ punching bag Diego Costa — Spain might have avoided its early exit.)

Kaka rediscovered his form when he returned in January to his beloved Milan after several ill-fitting seasons in Madrid. He was one of the last cuts from Brazil’s World Cup squad and is still open to a recall by the Selecao. If used in the proper way, like a Henry or a Beckham, Kaka’s career could be extended three or four years and at a very high level of creativity for MLS. Plus, rumors are rampant that Kaka’s Brazil and Milan teammate Robinho has been linked with several MLS clubs including Orlando City, another potential big-name splash for the league.

All three players will be loaned out to stay fresh until the 2015 MLS season opens in March — Kaka to Sao Paolo, the club of his youth, while Lampard and Villa will be ushered by NYCFC parent club Manchester City to its Australian sister club, Melbourne City (incidentally regarded as the two biggest moves in the history of that nation’s burgeoning soccer scene).

“This is the right moment to come to MLS,” a purple-scarfed Kaka said at his introductory press conference Wednesday. “I think the league is getting better every year, [improving] a lot, and I think the MLS will [have] a great, great future in soccer.”

The future is certainly as bright as ever … though for the existing clubs that want to cling to the old ways of operation, that realization could be uncomfortable.

There are plenty of numbers circulating in regard to the hold the World Cup has had on American audiences. But here’s the one, via the Inquirer’s Jonathan Tannenwald, that I think could be the most revealing: Through the quarterfinals of the tournament, broadcasts on the ESPN family of networks in the United States are averaging 4.1 million viewers.

That statistic is across every one of the 48 group matches and 12 knockout-stage matches played through Saturday. It’s not just the marquee matchups; that number, while buoyed by featured meetings like USA-Germany on a Saturday evening, is robust enough to hold true for Nigeria-Iran on a Wednesday afternoon.

Given the inherent grayness in the numbers — it doesn’t factor in Spanish-language broadcasts, while it also undercounts people flocking by the thousands to viewing parties or public places to take in games — it is an absolutely astounding commentary on the popularity of this tournament.

To contact Matthew De George, email mdegeorge@delcotimes.com. Follow him on Twitter @sportsdoctormd.